In an investor letter, Daniel Loeb, who heads the hedge fund Third Point, a major Dow Chemical shareholder, gave his constructive critique of Dow’s strategy. Dow, he says, should be earning $2.5 billion more than it currently does. The letter was by no means scathing. He praised Dow’s share buyback program. He acknowledged that Dow has pledged more...

As you may have heard, Enterprise Products Partners plans to build an ethane export terminal in Texas. It will have a capacity of 240,000 barrels of ethane per day. Let’s convert that number from the oil perspective into the petrochemical one. According to John Stekla, formally the olefins guru at IHS and now with Williams Cos., 1 million metric tons...

Back in July 2013, the Russian fertilizer maker EuroChem, in a joint press release with Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, announced it was planning to build a $1.5 billion ammonia and urea complex in Louisiana. At the time, the announcement was just one in a long line of chemical and fertilizer projects meant to take advantage of shale. The project seemed...

Here’s something that wasn’t very well publicized: JBF Industries has cancelled its project to build a bio-based ethylene glycol plant in Brazil. The company, and Indian polyethylene terephthalate producer, disclosed that it was putting the project “on hold” as part of its earnings back in August. This is a far cry from the original announcement in...

Momentive Performance Materials is threatening bankruptcy. Moments ago the company filed an NT 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is what a company files when it can’t file its 10-K annual report on time. The company says  it is in negotiations with creditors and notes that a Chapter 11 filing is a strong possibility. Momentive Performance...

For the first time, IHS put on a Technology Seminar as part of its World Petrochemical Conference activities last week. Don Bari and Jeff Plotkin, both formerly with Nexant, organized the gathering. At more than 100, the attendance was pretty good, especially for an inaugural event that is part of a larger conference. The first speaker was Guido Radaelli,...